Q&A: Boss In Reflective Mood

With the curtain about to fall on another season, Reds boss Sir Alex Ferguson was in contemplative mood at United's end-of-season awards night at Old Trafford. In an interview with MUTV, he talked openly about how he thinks the title race will finally pan out, the form of award-winning striker Wayne Rooney, and his summer plans in the transfer market...

How were your nerves over the course of Sunday?
Okay really because we learned of the Liverpool result not long after we arrived at Sunderland’s stadium. All we needed to do was keep our cool and enjoy our game after that so it was quite an easy day for us really. We played very well and could have scored a few goals but the thing that impressed me was the players didn’t let the result get to them. There was no sign of despondency, their heads were up, they enjoyed themselves, they played the right way and I was pleased at that.

The title race is going right to the wire and when it’s done that in the past, you’ve won it three times…
Yes, we’ve had a few of these last day encounters over the years and we’ve been fortunate to win three of them. But we did lose one at West Ham.

I wasn’t going to mention that…
But it’s important to understand we have the experience of these things, winning and losing. So we’ve got to handle ourselves in the right way.

Do you look back at results and think, if only we’d got a draw or a win there?
I used to do it but you can torture yourself that way. For instance, if you think of Burnley away - we’d only just started the season and then we lost three points. We missed a penalty that day and if we’d scored it, we would probably have gone on to win the match or get a draw at least. That point could have made the difference, who knows? You go through the bad refereeing decision in the game at Chelsea and the one against them at Old Trafford. If you look at all these twists and turns, you can torture yourself. But there’s no point to it, it happens. We sometimes get breaks ourselves so you have to take the bad with the good. It’s gone against us this season a bit in terms of the decisions but it can happen.

There have been several outstanding candidates for Player of the Year this season…
I think if you look at the defensive situation for a start, everyone was aware that our back four was decimated throughout the season at various times, and only Patrice Evra has played right through the whole season. We gave him a rest from the starting eleven for the Blackburn game but he’s played in every league match and that’s an astonishing achievement. I’m thankful we had him for all those games. So he comes into that category of having a truly outstanding season. Darren Fletcher’s emergence in the team makes him another candidate. Paul Scholes has had a phenomenal second half to the season. Antonio Valencia has done well on the right hand side as a new player. But Wayne Rooney’s form this season has been absolutely electrifying, it’s lifted everyone.

What has Wayne done differently this year?
I think he’s practiced more this season. He’s concentrated on that part of how we see him as a centre-forward, being as high up the pitch as he can be, be a threat in behind defences and get in the box as much as he can. I think that’s worked. I think it’s paid dividends.

Can we expect many new signings or is it just a case of tweaking things?
It’s difficult to say. People don’t recognise I’ve actually signed three players for £20million. Chris Smalling will join us from Fulham, Mame Diouf has done really well and of course young Javier Hernandez from Mexico will join us after the World Cup. Those are three young players whose futures are guaranteed for the club. Other young players come into that bracket are Macheda, Obertan and Welbeck. Darron Gibson’s starting to emerge very strongly. Jonny Evans has proved himself at 21 years of age and has now signed a new contract. So we’ve got a good nucleus of young players and a good foundation to carry the club for a long time now. What I’ll have to make decisions on is how we can improve the team because when you challenge for four league titles in a row, the Champions League, the Carling Cup, the FA Cup and the Club World Cup, it can have a draining effect and you have to be aware of that. You have to spot the moment when you say, ‘It’s time to freshen. It’s time to change one or two players.’ It’s not that I have a desire to do it, it’s a need to do it, simply because the demands and the pressure on players over a longer period can be quite exacting.

Sir Alex was speaking to MUTV.